Spacer and guide assembly for vertical superheater tubes

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a spacer and guide assembly or mechanism for maintaining the vertical tubes of a superheater or similar heat exchanger organization in alignment and in properly spaced relation while permitting limited relative vertical and horizontal movement therebetween. The apparatus for accomplishing this includes a spacer and guide assembly associated with a vertical tube, the spacer and guide assembly including a horizontal tube, guide lug means integral with the vertical tube, spacer lug means integral with the horizontal tube and coacting with the guide lug means so as to permit limited relative movement of the vertical and horizontal tubes, said guide lug means including a horizontal portion extending outwardly from the vertical tube, said spacer lug means being an inverted U-shaped lug fastened at the top to the bottom of the horizontal tube, the two legs of the U-shaped lug extending downwardly on opposite sides of the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, a pair of spaced stop means secured to the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, one on either side of the legs of the U-shaped lugs, the stop means being positioned such that they permit limited horizontal movement of the vertical tube relatively towards or away from the horizontal tube, but relative movement beyond this limit causes the U-shaped lugs to contact one or the other of the stop means.

United States Patent [1 1 Chayes et al.

[ July 29, 1975 1 SPACER AND GUIDE ASSEMBLY FOR VERTICAL SUPERHEATER TUBES [75]- Inventors: Norman Chanine Chayes,

Bloomfield; Edward Leslie Kochey, Jr., Colebrook, both of Conn.

[73] Assignee: Combustion Engineering, Inc.,

Windsor, Conn.

{22] Filed: Aug. 1, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 493,795

Primary Examiner-Kenneth W. Sprague Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Robert L. Olsen [57] ABSTRACT This invention relates to a spacer and guide assembly or mechanism for maintaining the vertical tubes of a superheater of similar heat exchanger organization in alignment and in properly spaced relation while permitting limited relative vertical and horizontal movement therebe'tween. The apparatus for accomplishing this includes a spacer and guide assembly associated with a vertical tube, the spacer and guide assembly including a horizontal tube, guide lug means integral with the vertical tube, spacer lug means integral with the horizontal tube and coacting with the guide lug means so as to permit limited relative movement of the vertical and horizontal tubes, said guide lug means including a horizontal portion extending outwardly from the vertical tube, said spacer lug means being an inverted U-shaped lug fastened at the top to the bottom of the horizontal tube, the two legs of the U- shaped lug extending downwardly on opposite sides of the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, a pair of spaced stop means secured to the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, one on either side of the legs of the U-shaped'lugs, the stop means being positioned such that they permit limited horizontal movement of the vertical tube relatively towards or away from the horizontal tube, but relative movement beyond this limit causes the U-shaped lugs to contact one or the other of the stop means.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUL29IH75 3, 896,771

SHEET 1 FIG. 1

SPACER AND-GUIDE ASSEMBLY FQR I/ERTICAL .grl d. 2 is an enlarged veiw or one of the spacer an, i

SUPERHEATER TUBES, guide assemblies;

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION superheater tubes and the like have been employed in the steam generating and allied fields for a long time, since there are many instances where it is necessary to maintain adjacent tubes in a predetermined spaced relation and in alignment while permitting the tubes to move axially and horizontally with relation to each other. However, these prior art organizations have had one or more deficiencies being either relatively complicated, cumbersome, costly or unreliable in operation. The organization of the present invention is an improved arrangement for aligning and spacing vertically disposed tubes, such as found in a pendant superheater, and which is simple in construction and effective in its operation with this aligning and spacing device permitting production welding to reduce the assembling cost of the device and with the device being organized so that a minimum amount of metal is exposed to the hot gases that surround the tubes and with the assembly also being in intimate contact and relation with the tubes all of which maintains the temperature of the elements of the assembly relatively low and prevents deterioration or burning thereof. Furthermore, the assembly is organized so that the stresses therein are maintained low and so that the connecting welds will not be overstressed and rupture. A further advantage of the organization of the invention is that limited differential movement between portions of the alignment and spacer assembly and the tubes to which these portions are connected may be had so that creep of the tubes relative to these portions of the assembly will not precipitate the failure of the connecting welding. Another problem in previous guide and spacer assemblies is the rubbing which can occur between pressure parts, i.e. the rubbing between the vertical tube and horizontal spacer tube upon relative movement thereof, which rubbing can eventually cause failure of such tubes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is directed to a spacer and guide assembly for a panel made up of vertical tubes, there being a spacer and guide assembly associated with the first vertical tube, the spacer and guide assembly including a horizontal tube, guide lug means intergral with the vertical tube, spacer lug means integral with the horizontal tube and coacting with the guide lug means so as to permit limited relative movement of the tubes, said guide lug means and spacer lug means being 80 related to each other that relative movement between the vertical and horizontal tube causes rubbing or contacting action between the spacer lug means and guide lug means, but not between the vertical and horizontal tubes, or between either of the tubes and the spacer lug means or guide lug means. This prevents wear of the vertical and horizontal tubes, which could eventually cause failure thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a partial sectional side view of a typical vapor generator showing a typical location of the spacer and guide assembly associated with vertical Superheater tubes;

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Looking now to FIG. 1, numeral 10 designates the upper portion of a furnace, where hot combustion gases are generated. These hot gases exit from the furnace through a horizontal gas pass 12, containing a pendant superheater section 14, made up of a plurality of tubular panels, one of which is shown. Each panel is made up of a plurality of closely spaced tubes which enter and exit through the roof of the furnace. These tubes are relatively long, and thus it is necessary to provide the first tube of the panel with a spacer and guide assembly 16, in order to maintain the tubes in properly spaced relation and alignment. The other tubes of the panel are slidably connected to each other by means 15 which permits relatve longitudinal movement. This connection is shown in detail in US. Pat. No. 2,997,069, which issued on Aug. 22, 1961.

The spacer and guide assembly 16 is shown in more detail in FIGS. 2-4. As seen in FIG. 2, a guide 24 is secured to the first vertical tube 18 by means of weld 25. A horizontal spacer tube 22 is positioned between tube 18 and the next adjacent vertical tube 20. Horizontal spacer tube 22 has a U-shaped spacer lug 30 attached to its underside, by means of weld 34 extending across the upper portion 32 of the lug. As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the two downwardly extending legs 36, 38 of the U-shaped lug straddles the guide lug 24, one leg being on either side. The guide lug 24 has a pair of intergral stop means 26, 28 which limit the relative horizontal movement of the U-shaped lug 30 and its associated spacer tube 22 towards or away from vertical tube 18. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the space between the stop 26 and leg 30, and between the stop 28 and leg 30, is less than the space between tube 18 and tube 22, and between the tube 20 and tube 22, respectively. Thus, any relative horizontal movement of the tubes causes contact and rubbing action between the lug, and not between the tubes, or between a tube and one of the lugs. Thus, the lugs take all of the wear, and there is no rubbing action on the pressure parts, or tubes through which high pressure fluid is flowing.

Temperature differences will cause relative vertical movement between the tubes 18 and 20 and the horizontal tube 22, and this movement is unrestricted by the lug arrangement shown. In the unlikely event of extreme vertical movement of tube 18 relative to tube 22, a lug 40 is welded to tube 20, to prevent the U-shaped lug 30 from rising up out of the saddle formed by stop 26, 28 on lug 24.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination a plurality of spaced, vertical tubes, a spacer and guide assembly positioned between two of the vertical tubes, the spacer and guide assembly including a horizontal tube, guide lug means integral with one of the vertical tubes, spacer lug means integral with the horizontal tube and coacting with the guide lug means so as to permit limited relative movement of the vertical and horizontal tubes, said guide lug means including a horizontal portion extending outwardly from the vertical tube, said spacer lug means being an in- FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 33 .of FIG. and I FIG. 4 is a view taken along along line 4 4 of FIG. Spacing and aligning devices for vertically disposed 5 2.

verted U-shaped lug fastened at the top to the bottom of the horizontal tube, the two legs of the U-shaped lug extending downwardly on opposite sides of the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, a pair of spaced stop means secured to the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, one on either side of the legs of the U-shaped lug, the stop means being positioned such 

1. In combination a plurality of sPaced, vertical tubes, a spacer and guide assembly positioned between two of the vertical tubes, the spacer and guide assembly including a horizontal tube, guide lug means integral with one of the vertical tubes, spacer lug means integral with the horizontal tube and coacting with the guide lug means so as to permit limited relative movement of the vertical and horizontal tubes, said guide lug means including a horizontal portion extending outwardly from the vertical tube, said spacer lug means being an inverted U-shaped lug fastened at the top to the bottom of the horizontal tube, the two legs of the U-shaped lug extending downwardly on opposite sides of the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, a pair of spaced stop means secured to the horizontal portion of the guide lug means, one on either side of the legs of the U-shaped lug, the stop means being positioned such that they permit limited horizontal movement of the vertical tube relatively towards or away from the horizontal tube, but relative movement beyond this limit causes the U-shaped lug to contact one or the other of the stop means. 